Prelude. Travels with Sierra, or the Big Red Beast.

One of my ideas of a fun trip is to throw some camp gear and a mattress in the back of my pickup truck and boon dock camp as much as possible, taking copious photographs along the way. 

Boon dockings governmental technical term is dispersed camping. It is basically camping in free sites provided by the National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management. Most of these sites are nothing more than a clearing for parking or setting up a tent. No water. No electricity. No maids or room service. And no fees to stay. Quite a few of them are remote and have wonderful views of spectacular scenery. 

There are a lot of these West of the Mississippi.  East of the great Muddy, they are mostly called Walmart parking lots. 

My lovely wife is not much of a camper, preferring to stay in Hyatt Regency’s, or similar accommodations. Because of this, my manly camping trips become solo events. This usually works out for the best as I tend to wake up at dawn and take “100 pictures of the same damn thing”. Her words. 

After I have spent an allotted time wandering amongst the scenery and filling up my cameras SD card(s), we usually meet up and complete the trip staying at hotels, where our effective starting time changes to about 10 AM, and nice restaurants replace beef jerky and crackers.

This series of blogs is about the first part of a recent excursion to Wyoming; the driving, and the manly, boondock camping part.

To get started, let me share the basics of my tiny hotel on wheels, also known as the Big Red Beast. Here are a few pics showing how everything is crammed into the back of my 2013 GMC Sierra Pickup truck:

The view from the back of the truck:

The view from the side:

 

 My wife's suitcases and some extra bedding are hidden under the bed platform.

The front is also fairly well crammed with "stuff":

All the while I am loading up the gear, Peter Paul and Mary’s version of “Leaving on a Jet plane” keeps running through my mind; “My bags are packed and I’m ready to go…”

Next blog; Heading out of the Big Oh-hi-Oh.

What is your idea of an "ideal" trip?